Syracuse is a dangerous underdog for BC

Friday

Boston College must be wary of Syracuse, especially with a questionable passing game.

The old Northeast rivals have taken divergent paths during the second half of the season.

Back on the night of Oct. 14, Syracuse pulled off perhaps the upset of the season, beating defending national-champion Clemson and improving to 4-3 on the season. The next afternoon, Boston College shocked Louisville, the previously struggling Eagles outscoring the Cardinals for their third win of the season.

Since then, Syracuse hasn’t won a game and is limping to the finish of the season. BC, meanwhile, has won three more times since then, clinched a bowl berth with last Saturday’s victory over Connecticut, and has a chance to get its seventh win on Saturday when the Eagles visit the Orange on Saturday in the Carrier Dome.

Given the way BC has played over the second half of the season and how Syracuse has fallen — plus the fact that Syracuse quarterback Eric Dungey suffered an undisclosed lower leg injury on Nov. 4, hasn’t played since, and likely won’t play against the Eagles — it seems like BC should win roll to a fifth win in its last six games.

But there’s a but, and it has to do with the Eagles’ offense.

Redshirt junior Darius Wade is now at quarterback after redshirt freshman Anthony Brown was lost for the season two weeks ago, and though BC beat up on UConn last week it was on the strength of the Eagles’ rushing attack. Little was needed from Wade. And Wade, therefore remains unproven.

If BC can’t run consistently against Syracuse’s defense, it remains to be seen whether Wade is capable of making the plays in the passing game for the Eagles to win.

“I thought Darius did a great job in the game [against UConn],” BC coach Steve Addazio said during his weekly press conference on Monday. “Really proud of Darius. He played well, made some big plays, managed the game well, did some really good things. That was a week for him to get back and get all the reps. He's taken a very small amount of reps because the starter gets the majority of the reps.

“Darius has just continued to improve because just by sheer fact of getting those reps in practice.”

Wade only threw 15 times against UConn, completing seven passes in some very lousy weather at Fenway Park for 55 yards and a touchdown without an interception.

Freshman running back A.J. Dillon, meanwhile, carried the ball 24 times for 200 yards and two touchdowns, senior Jon Hilliman ran 10 times for 107 yards and two scores, and the Eagles rolled up 330 yards on the ground.

If they can run at will against Syracuse the same way they did against UConn, the game should wind up as expected between teams heading in opposite directions. But even against a rush defense like Syracuse’s that ranks just 87th in the nation, winning one-dimensionally is difficult.

“It's hard to run it down anyone's throat,” said Addazio. “As you know, we've really worked hard on our throw game … [and] we're going to spend a whole lot of time [in practice] on our throw game. They bring a lot of pressure. And when you do that, you've got opportunities in the perimeter, and we have the ability to strike there. So, we put a lot of emphasis on that.”

Defensively, even if Dungey sits, the BC defense will be challenged — reinforcing just how important competency in the passing game will be for the Eagles.

Last year when the Orange beat the Eagles 28-20 in Chestnut Hill, Dungey threw for 434 yards and three touchdowns and ran for another 54 yards.

Assuming Dungey doesn’t play, senior Zack Mahoney will likely start. And even though Mahoney doesn’t measure up to Dungey from a statistical standpoint, he threw for 384 yards and three touchdowns two weeks ago when Syracuse scored 43 points in a loss to Wake Forest.

And no matter who the Syracuse quarterback has been, save for last weeks’s 56-10 loss to Louisville, the Orange have been able to score. Their average of 28.6 points per game, in fact, is significantly better than BC’s average of 24.7.

“Offensively they're very explosive and have big play, strike capability,” Addazio said on Wednesday during his weekly conference call when he highlighted Dungey, Mahoney, and wide receivers Steve Ishmael and Ervin Phillips. “Obviously we have the utmost respect for them.”

BC is rolling. Syracuse isn’t.

But when the rivals meet on Saturday, nothing is certain. Especially with the Eagles starting quarterback who still hasn’t proven he can carry a team on the strength of his arm.

Eric Avidon can be reached at 508-626-3809 or eavidon@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @ericavidon.

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